7/27/13 TH goes a wanderin'

So this past week was kind of a big deal for my playtime as I will be switching to graveyard shifts at work which will cut into my playtime dramatically.  As such, I was looking for pretty much any event to attend this weekend.  I found out that Game On in Warwick, RI was hosting a 25pt CoC event, with a Convergence Battle Box going to the winner.

I packed the Trolls and drove down.

I managed to get to the store just as they were opening, which is good as signups started immediately.  Unfortunately after some back and forth it turned out that they had to cancel the event due to lack of players.  Fortunately, one of the guys there, Eric I believe (will have to check my notes) was up for playing some games.  I asked him to pick his poison and he chose 25pts.  I decided against cutting the Jarl list down to 25pts; I felt like I would have to change it so much more than just "cut 25pts" that it would defeat the point of learning the list, so I decided to run eDoomshaper, and Eric played eVayl.  We both actually ran 5 model armies.

I ran a list, which has quickly become what I dub the "BFF Forever" list, and even has its own themesong:

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
* Troll Axer
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Mulg the Ancient
Janissa Stonetide

This list does one thing pretty well, delivers heavy beasts.

My dance partner ran 1pt down with:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight
* Angelius
* Ravagore
* Scythean
The Forsaken

Scenario: Supply and Demand (SR2013 #2)

My immediate concern was Ravagore shots on Doomshaper and Scythean coming in and denying Tough with Slaughterhouse.  We started off the game moving forward.  I ended up going second, so I positioned the Earthborn against the Angelius with wall-toting Janissa behind him on the same side of the board as the only rough terrain, Mulg and Doomshaper, with the Axer ready to toss it up with the Ravagore to keep him from shooting.

My opponent ran his beasts forward, riled all of them, moved up his Forsaken and stole the Fury from the Angelius with Vayl set to remove the Fury from the Scythean and Ravagore.  He put out Occultation on the Forsaken, Refuge on the Angelius and Admonition on the Scythean.

I moved forward on my team with most of my beasts running, the Earthborn setting up for a +2" Spd charge being near the rough terrain and Janissa dropping her wall to make him armor 20.  Doom put Wild Agression on Mulg and then walked over near the wall, putting the Earthborn's animus on himself, bringing himself to Def 17/Arm 17 vs. any Ravagore shots.  Mulg activated and ran to tow into the center zone and the Axer came up behind him, ready to charge off at the Ravagore next turn when I popped feat.

With the turn passed, my opponent let Occultation fall off and charged the Angelius at the Earthborn doing some fairly significant damage as Dice +2 before Refuging away.  He then moved Vayl to ~3" away from his friendly objective and swung the Scythean around to run up that flank.  Finally he brought the Ravagore centrally into the zone as his only contesting model.  The Ravagore then took a boosted shot at Mulg and hit, doing three damage.  With that my opponent passed the turn.

I upkept Wild Agression, scooped my Fury and checked my control range, finding that the enemy objective was roughly 14" from Mulg.  It was time to live the dream.  I activated Doomshaper, who popped feat, put the Acer animus on Mulg and charged the Angelius 11" (bringing him just past center line).  The Earthborn activated and declared a Slam against the Ravagore moving way less than his possible distance of 13" and knocking it a clear 6" back, leaving Mulg an open line to the enemy objective.  Mulg charged 14" in all his glory and was successful in charging the enemy objective.  Once he did, the Scythean called its Admonition move and tried to get inbetween Mulg and eVayl, but was too far out to cause issue.  Mulg blew up the objective in one shot from his Open Fist at Dice +2, Goaded 2" and then brought his Rune Club to bear against Vayl with 3 dice to hit, and Dice +5 on Damage.  With only two Transfers and six possible swings (second initial, +4 bought attacks, +Doomshaper Affinity) from Mulg, the match ended in my favor.

At  this point my opponent asked if I would be willing to reset and play again, same list, same scenario.  I said I was happy to, and pulled things back.  I knew Mulg wasn't going to live the dream this turn, but I was eager to play again.  The game started with him winning initiative and our setups and first turns looking the same.  The second turn is where things differentiated.  As there is no Killbox artifice in this scenario he kept Vayl 5" from any of her friendly models at any time and avoided damaging Mulg, instead sending the Angelius (who once more Refuged away) and the Scythean in trying to kill my Earthborn Dire Troll.  He failed however.

On my second turn I had Mulg charge the Scythean (who was still engaging the Earthborn), kill it, and then try to Goad into range of the Ravagore (but fell less than .5" short).  After that I activated Doomshaper, popped feat and tossed Wild Aggression over to the Earthborn, then cast a Primal Shock through him to kill the Forsaken.  The Earthborn then charged the Angelius and scrapped him.  At this point my opponent only had a Ravagore and Vayl, I had lost Janissa and had no Fury on Doomshaper.  He ran his Ravagore over to get in range of Doomshaper, but Mulg got a free strike in crushing the Ravagore's spirit.  I was pretty sure that was game, but then Vayl moved forward, popped feat and went for the spell assassination on Doom by shooting the Ravagore in the back and channeling through it.  Her final Obliteration took me below 0.  I picked up a single die and rolled a Tough check...

...and passed.

At that point, Vayl had no Fury and was in charge range of both Mulg and the Earthborn, so he conceded the game.  All in all, two very fun matches!

NETT Recap

So, like a chump I showed up at NETT completely unprepared; I also neglected to take pictures or notes.  One list was with a familiar 'lock who I stuck onto a Borka list I liked hoping to see similar results with better flexability; another was a brand new 'lock who I had barely finished painting and had yet to play a game with.

Here were my lists:

Grim Angus
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Impaler
* Dire Troll Bomber
* Earthborn Dire Troll
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer
Fell Caller Hero
Janissa Stonetide
Trollkin Champion Hero

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Axer
* Dire Troll Mauler
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Mulg the Ancient
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer

My idea here was that Doomshaper was going to handle Gargossals, while Grim was more of an all comers based on an old Borka list I had a lot of fun with.  Point in case, Grim is not Borka, and practice is an important thing.

Round 1

eDoomshaper vs. Darius

I got matched up against a Cygnar player.  He played Darius with a Stormwall, Jr., a number of light ranged jacks, Rangers and another tarpit unit (Sword Knights maybe).  In a lucky strike, he brought the Stormwall into the zone, and I knew I had to commit to taking it down in a single turn, else Darius would just undo my hard work.

When you absolutely, positively need to put something in the dirt, few things get the job done like Wild Aggression + Rage Mulg under eDoomy's feat.  Charged for free, and after 2 initials and 5 bought attacks, the Fortification buffed Stormwall was sitting at 3 hit points.  My opponent sighed in relief, but it was Mulg with eDoom, the free attack ended the Stormwall.  I was pretty happy with the outcome, it took my feat, and I had offered Mulg up on a silver platter but I was now significantly ahead of my opponent in points on the board.

My opponent, for better or worse, was concerned with Mulg being within charge range of Darius so he opted to commit to making roadblocks for Mulg, rather than putting dents in him; which I imagine was probably the best idea, as his chances of chewing through 35 boxes at Arm 21 without the Stormwall was a problem for his list.

We went back and forth a bit, with Mulg wrecking some troops before the Earthborn got to Darius and left him on 1 health.  Darius decided to try and make a run for eDoomshaper in an attempt to sneak out an assassination, but forgot Mulg had reach, and a Free Strike that would have been hard to miss (Mat 7 +2 +Wild Aggression) ended things handily.

My two teammates, playing Circle and Cygnar both won their games.

And then it went downhill...

Round 2

pGrim vs. Ossyan

In my defense, the team that we played here ended up taking second place.

My opponent decimated me.  Between the Mage Hunter Assassins and just general craziness he made me look like exactly what I was, a chump who got lucky with his first match and trampolined up against other teams who went 3-0.  I had an outside chance of assassination on my last turn as the Bomber launched two barrels at Ossyan, but needing 14s to hit on three dice didn't go my way.

Ossyan won on scenario.

My Circle teammate lost his game and our Cygnar player tied his.

Round 3

eDoomshaper vs. eCaine

eCaine, Stormblades, and... stuff?  I want to forget this game, not because I lost, but because I was such an idiot.  Remember that foreshadowing about practice is good and playing casters you have never played before can lead to issues?  Yeah.

So the Stormwall came into the zone, and Mulg was looking to go for 2 for 2 on putting Colossals into the dirt; but he was going to need feat and the Axer animus to get there.  Unfortunately, while I was remembering my previous Stormwall dirtnapping, I ran on autopilot.  eDoom feated and put the Mauler animus on Mulg while the Axer charged off to Thresher some troops.  Axer killed half a unit.

Mulg charges!... 10"... wait, didn't I need 13"?  CRAP!  I put the wrong Animus on him.

So Mulg makes his offering to the Stormwall gods, and none of my other beasts can capitalize on eDoom's feat turn.

A wasted feat turn and being now within striking distance of pretty much everything in his army was a bad thing.  After one turn of pouring shots into my army it was looking very sparse.  eDoomshaper had 3 health left.  I tried to maneuver a bit, but eCaine is a little tough to hide from!

On his next turn he did exactly three damage to eDoomshaper after transfers and I didn't roll Tough.  As I was walking away from the table I remembered a little something... eDoomshaper has Regeneration, which I didn't use.

Chalk one up to being an idiot.

My teammates both lost their games.

Final Round

Grim vs. Harbinger

This was probably my favorite game of the day, my opponent brought Harby, the full Errants package minus the Seneschal, the Book, Rhoven & Co., a Revenger, Repenter, and Reckoner along with a Vassal of Menoth, but no Choir.

We played a pretty good game of cat and mouse here, with what he had having trouble damaging the Champions reliably, but working as a wonderful tarpit to prevent me from getting to Harbinger who was dominating the zone.  I did lost most of my Krielstone Bearer unit on her feat turn as, for whatever reason, I thought her feat cause Continuous Effect Fire, not a Fire damage roll.

My opponent won on control points, but it was hard fought and well won, it was an awesome game to end a great event on.

My teammates both lost their last games as well.